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Personal Injury Blog

Few types of personal injury are more devastating and life-altering than a brain injury. Even the mildest, non-life threatening versions can still have a grave impact on your quality of life. They're not something to take lightly, especially if you've recently been in an accident that may have left you such an injury.

Just as bad if not worse, though, is dealing with the aftermath of this kind of injury. Both for yourself or a loved one, coping with brain injuries can be a lot of unpleasant work as you try to adjust to life and find the proper treatment. Even more troubling can be how difficult it is to get proper compensation for your injury if it wasn't your fault.

For a lot of people, it's hard not to feel like you're completely on your own when you've suffered a brain injury. That doesn't have to be the case, though. To help you get off on the right foot in adjusting to everything, here's some advice on coping with a brain injury both physically and legally.

Acceptance

The first step to dealing with a brain injury is the simple act of accepting that it's happened. While this sounds simple on the surface, it's much harder than many would expect. It often means realizing that there are things that you once enjoyed or took for granted that simply aren't possible due to things like loss of motor functions, impaired senses, or any number of other issues that can come about as a result of this injury.

However, it's equally important that you don't try to force yourself to move on immediately. Much like you'd grieve a loved one's death, you're in a period of grieving for yourself. Accepting your injury and any resulting disability can take months or even years to fully come to terms with. The only thing to always keep in mind is not to give up.

Medicine

Proper medical care is obviously an important part of coping with a brain injury. Both immediately after and in the future, you'll likely need competent and experienced care to help you recover and deal with the aftermath.

In many cases, you'll likely need to see a specialist in your particular type of injury. The kind of care they may prescribe will depend on the severity, as well, so try to stay informed of your condition on your own. Additionally, don't be afraid to look for a second opinion. Brain injuries are a tricky subject and getting more eyes on the problem is almost never a bad thing. All of this will make adjusting to your injury that much easier.

Legal Counsel

No matter what type of injury you have, it's important to have proper legal representation to stand beside you in your lowest moments. This is especially true for brain injuries, as there are numerous pitfalls and annoyances you can encounter when trying to help yourself. One such problem could be in holding people accountable for the accident that caused your injury, the process of proving negligence on their part often being arduous and difficult for various reasons.

Not only that, it can often be a battle to get proper compensation from your insurance company. As your insurance is motivated by profit above all else, there are numerous ways they might try to short change you on the money you should be paid out. It's not uncommon for them to even accuse you of outright faking your injury, as certain brain injuries are hard to spot through medical imaging.

To avoid this, you'll need legal counsel experienced in these types of cases. Places like the Law Firm of Freeman & Freeman are one effective option, as they have extensive experience helping those in need get what they're owed in situations of traumatic injury.

Most motorcycle accidents typically involve two drivers or at least the ones that turn into litigation. Do to someone's negligence, a crash occurs and the party not at fault will seek compensation for their injuries. It isn't a simple matter by any stretch, but it can be done. However, where motorcycle accidents and compensation get more complicated is when the accident wasn't caused by another driver, but by the road itself.

Every motorcyclist has driven on some spectacularly bad roads before. However, every time you take that bike out onto a bad road, you are taking a pretty big risk. When a car drives over something like loose gravel or a pothole, it doesn't really affect them. However, if a motorcyclist hits a pothole or loose gravel in the wrong way, it means a pretty bad accident.

Roadway hazards include:

Rough Seams – Roads are constructed so that there is typically a seam in the middle as they only typically do one side at a time. When the road is finished, however, that seam should be minimal. That is unfortunately not always the case. If you hit this uneven seam while doing something like passing another vehicle, it could be dangerous.

Gravel – Gravel road will always be difficult for bikers. Even just loose gravel on paved roads can be an issue. Essentially they can cause the front wheels of a motorcycle to slide out.

Railroad Crossings – The reason railroad crossings are required to be properly marked is not only to watch for trains but so drivers can take proper care while crossing them. They are rough to cars but even rougher on motorcycles.

Bad Design – We have all rode on roads that were a little iffy. Maybe there was a blind corner or a particularly tight curve without a guard rail. These are dangerous and should be dealt with by the governing entity before someone gets hurt.

Getting Compensation For Motorcycle Accidents Caused By Road Defects

The obvious difficulty when looking to recover compensation from a motorcycle accident caused by any kind of road defect is that there is often not one person responsible. Instead of going after another driver as you would with other accident cases, you instead need to seek compensation for the state or city that is responsible for maintaining that roadway

As you would expect, the city or state will try very hard to get out of paying you for an accident they caused by likely not wanting to spend any money maintaining that particular road. Many will try to insist that it was your fault for one reason or another. This is why it is crucial that if you need to file a claim against a government, something that is vastly more complicated than the normally complicated personal injury cases, that you hire a knowledgeable attorney. You can trust that the government entity will bring in their best lawyers to save themselves both money and reputation, so you need a lawyer to evaluate the success rate of your case and make sure you get that compensation that you need.

Need Help?

Were you a victim of a motorcycle accident that is fully to blame on a road defect that should have been fixed? You have a difficult case ahead of you, but it is not impossible. Contact us today to see what the Law Office of Freeman & Freeman can do to help you recover compensation from the government that was responsible for maintaining that road. Just because another vehicle wasn't involved doesn't mean you can't recover damages from your motorcycle accident if the road itself was to blame.